


Picking Up the Pieces

by BeautyOnFyre



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: F/M, Kozin - Freeform, Minor Character Death, Tennora
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-27
Updated: 2014-01-27
Packaged: 2018-01-10 04:57:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1155360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeautyOnFyre/pseuds/BeautyOnFyre
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Pema's sudden death, Tenzin is left to raise their four children on his own. Korra is there to help pick up the pieces of his shattered life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Picking Up the Pieces

"You need to grieve." 

He tensed his shoulders and turned to face Korra with a façade of control. "I need to be strong for my children. Jinora, Ikki, Meelo and now Rohan have all lost their mother." 

"And you lost your wife, Tenzin. You need help and I am going to stay here until you no longer need me." 

He sighed, letting his shoulder droop a bit and he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Korra, the world needs you more. Amon is still-" 

"Amon is not a concern." 

"But you are the Avatar and it is your job to keep balance in the world." 

"But how can I keep balance in the world if the ones I love are falling apart? I am following my intuition and it's not telling me that Amon is coming back, nor is it telling me to return to the Southern Water Tribe. It's telling me that I belong here, with you." 

 

\--- 

 

The cry that pierced the silence of the night continued. Tenzin had tended to Rohan twice already that night and must be overtired if he could sleep through the child's wails. 

Before she knew it, her bare feet were on the floor, padding through the hallway and hesitating only slightly at the door to Tenzin's room. The hesitation was quashed as baby Rohan let out another cry and Korra pushed the door aside, silent on her feet as she made haste to the crib. 

Rohan stopped only a moment to realize he had been heard but continued to cry until Korra tended to his soiled diaper. After a quick cleansing and a change, she rubbed his small back but would not settle. Eyeing the rocking chair beside the bed, she took a seat and rocked slowly. A lullaby passed from her lips as she rocked a steady rhythm and Rohan began to quiet. The song became a hum and eventually Korra and Rohan found peace in the dark of the night.  

Tenzin woke to see Korra in the rocking chair and his son's head nestled upon her collar, both completely at peace. He extracted Rohan from her steady grip, rousing her from sleep.  

"Sorry," Tenzin whispered, "I think he'll sleep a bit longer." 

"Sorry to intrude." 

"Not at all, I should be the one apologizing. He woke you up because I was not vigilant in his care." 

"Tenzin, children are born with two parents for a reason. One cannot carry the burden alone." 

He looked down to meet her eyes. "When did you become so wise?" His eyes danced as he teased her. 

 

\--- 

 

Rohan did it. He didn't mean to; he's but a toddler at a year and a half. He managed to say the most terrifying word that anyone in the house could mutter and when he said it, the entire room paused and lapsed into silence.  

Tenzin was on the other side of the rug where Rohan had toddled from over to Korra. He was good at it, Tenzin had to admit. He reached Korra's arms when the child gleefully shouted the most taboo word. 

"Mumma! Mum Daddada!" 

His pride at his accomplishment was apparent but the look on Korra's face was not pride; it was pain. She would love him like a son but never be his mother. She truly loved Rohan, Meelo, Ikki and Jinora like her own but she did long for the real thing. She realized then that she was in too deep. The toddler's proud outburst probably opened old wounds for everyone else. 

Pema may have been gone for over a year but that didn't make it sting any less.  

Ikki and Jinora had burst into tears and ran from the room. Tenzin looked like he would go after them when Meelo started crying too and went outside to the gardens. He sighed and slumped back down onto the rug with his hand massaging the bridge of his nose. Korra saw the conflict clearly on the usually calm man's face.  

"I don't know where he learned that from, Tenzin, but I'm sorry. If," she looked back to Rohan so that she wouldn't have to see Tenzin's reaction, "If you want me to go back to the South Pole, I understand." 

Tenzin stood up and made his way over to Korra with his usual light steps. He didn't stop like she thought he would, just scooped up Rohan and said, "I think someone is ready for his nap." 

Korra felt like a horrible person. She had been honest; she didn't know where he had learned to say that word. Now that it was over, she knew that even though she loved the kids, the island, Republic City, her friends, and, most importantly, Tenzin, she should leave that very moment. There was a good chance that Tenzin might ask her to leave. He didn't need her, he needed his wife back. 

She stood from the floor on autopilot and slowly walked down the hall to her room. She started to gather the small things strewn about her room. This would be easier on everyone if she just left now, she thought as she pulled out her bag from beneath her bed and started packing. "What are you doing?" The voice made her stop. The tall figure approached her and took her hand that was still poised over the luggage, making her drop the shirt into the bag. 

Tenzin turned her until she faced him and tilted her chin up to look at him, brushing away tears that she hadn't realized were falling down her cheeks. His eyes searched hers, "I don't want you to leave, Korra. My children need you. I need you. Sometimes I swear that you're the only sane one here to talk to." He gave a small chuckle which made a sad smile surface for a moment on Korra's face. "Not only would Jinora, Ikki and Meelo be devastated by you leaving, but," he paused before he continued, "Rohan does view you as a motherly figure. You're all he knows. He doesn't like to go to sleep for me without your lullabies. I just…" 

He trailed off, trying to think about what to say. "I know that I ask a lot of you and I know that you're giving up a lot to be here but I don't wish for you to leave." 

When Korra gave a small nod, he embraced her.  

 

\--- 

 

Asami drove the satomobile around a tight corner in pursuit of some Triple Threat thugs and looked to her right to see Mako fire bending at the thugs along with Bolin's earth bending. Korra had told them to go after them while she dealt with the last one at the scene of the crime. 

Little did they know it was a bad idea.  

 

\--- 

 

She was screwed. The Agnikai’s had ambushed her ambush and captured her. She had no one to blame but herself. After all, she had sent Asami, Bolin and Mako off to capture the rest. Korra knew there was power in numbers. Now, she was tied to a table, gagged, and without anything that she could bend. Fire was useless, no water to be seen and the room was all metal. She really needed Lin to teach her metal bending. 

Someone with a black hood concealing their whole face came in and said nothing; just looked down at her through the eye holes in the full hood. "I've been watching you, Avatar. The way you move is hypnotic. Such grace and fury is a strange mixture to behold, but it shall be mine," his voice chilled her to the bone. 

She remembered the blade, cutting through her tunic and each band of her chest binding before the door slammed open.  

 

\--- 

 

Once the boat pulled up to the dock, Tenzin was aboard in an instant and picked up Korra in his arms. She was shrouded in Lin's cloak which he was careful to keep closed. Her fist clenched in his air acolyte robes and she whispered his name on the skin of his neck. 

"Thank you Lin," he said to his past flame and the current chief of police before he hurried Korra into their home. He looked down at her as he climbed the stairs up the hill and noticed her hand; white knuckles still clenching the airy fabric. 

Ikki was at the door and looked close to tears. "Is she okay Daddy?" 

He looked back to Korra's hair, tangled and a mess. How did a father explain the concept of forced affections to a child let alone his youngest daughter? He let a sigh escape his lips, "I think she will be." He left the 'eventually' out so as not to worry Ikki more. Ikki took it at face value and let her father pass.  

When Tenzin entered the house, he went to Korra's room and placed her on her bed. He noticed the prying eyes behind her door and shut it after telling them to go to bed. The children didn't need to see Korra this way. She was lethargic, unmoving and seemingly numb. He went to her closet and changed her into some pajamas before taking her hair out and brushing it for her with the comb from her vanity. She seemed to respond well to that and leaned into his touch.  

After a while, she lifted an arm to halt his motions and discarded the brush on the bed. She crawled a bit forward and sat on Tenzin's lap before wrapping her arms around his neck. Her chin rested just over his right shoulder and her eyes closed when his hands started to rub relaxed circles across her back. 

"Thank you," she rasped in a whisper. 

Tenzin's reply was silenced by the whimpers and subsequent wail of Rohan in his crib across the hall. Korra lifted her head to the noise and slid off the bed, following it through her door and Tenzin's to the crib. She lifted the screaming baby to her chest and checked him over. After a diaper change, she took up her usual place in the rocking chair. Tenzin stood in the doorway to his room and watched Korra with Rohan. She had a lot of maternal instincts for one as young as herself. He was a bit surprised that they superseded her current turmoil, if he was to be completely honest.  

Rohan settled back to sleep and she rose from the rocker to place him in his crib. She looked up at Tenzin and beckoned him in as she sat on the end of his bed. He closed the door behind him and sat alongside Korra. 

"It scared me more than anything has ever scared me before to know that the man who captured me was going to take something from me that I could never have back." Korra said this in a quiet voice as she looked at her hands in her lap. "I've never- I'm still-" she struggled with her words and Tenzin just stroked soothing circles across her back. 

"I know that this is asking a lot of you and I know that you've given up a lot already since Pema…" she trailed off for a moment before continuing, "but I have a favor that I cannot ask anyone else." 

"What is it?" His deep voice matched her volume in the waning light of the early evening. 

"I want to know that the first person I give myself to cares for me and always will in some way. I don't want to fear that this experience might be ripped away from me and tainted by someone else like what almost happened today. 

"I know that I'm not Pema and what you really need is her, but would you do this for me?" 

Tenzin was conflicted. Was it really betraying Pema's memory? If Pema was the one left with the children after he had died, would he wish for her to move on? 

"Yes," he said before he realized it. He looked at Korra and brushed her hair away from her face. "Yes, I will." 

 

\--- 

 

The fall had frozen into winter and there was ice in the waters surrounding Air Temple Island. Tenzin had left on Oogi to go to work already when Korra felt sick. She put Rohan down before she found herself bent over the toilet seat, purging her body of the early breakfast she had just consumed. 

As she thought about it, she had eaten eggs for breakfast the last three mornings and had thrown up after each time. Maybe she had developed an allergy to eggs? She brushed her teeth and picked up Rohan again before heading back into the kitchen to make breakfast for the kids, who would all be up once the bacon was cooking. 

With Rohan on her hip, she fixed him a bottle and took out the fixings for breakfast. Once Rohan and the bleary-eyed Meelo, Ikki and Jinora were happily fed, Korra left Rohan under Jinora's watchful eye and headed to the family healer on the island. 

She greeted all the air acolytes and the White Lotus guards that were on her way before going into the building where the healer resided.  

"What can I do for you, Avatar Korra?" The healer was an old woman that seemed only a little younger than Katara. 

"Just Korra, please. I think I'm having a bad reaction to eggs. Like an allergy, maybe?" The healer nodded and started her examination. After a few questions, she drew some blood and poured the vial into a few other vials with various concoctions to test it. Once the tests were done, she grinned at Korra. "You tested negative for any of the ten allergens, however, one test did come back positive." 

"So I don't have allergies and I'm not going to die?" she verified.  

"Nope, not dying today, but you will be sick a bit longer. You tested positive for a pregnancy. Congratulations! The world will be thrilled to hear of another generation of children from the Avatar." 

"Damn it!" she cursed as she put her face in her palms. This wasn’t supposed to happen. How would she tell Tenzin that it was his? Then a thought occurred to her, "You won't say anything, right?" 

"I cannot, as a healer, release any information unless you require a next of kin to be contacted because you are otherwise incapable. I am sworn to silence." The healer quirked a grey brow at her. "My years of experience tell me three things right now. One, this wasn't planned, and two, you're unsure of how to tell the father. Am I correct?" 

Korra nodded with a sigh. "What's the third thing?" 

The healer smiled, "You are smart, my dear, and you will make a fine mother. The third is that everything will be okay. Help is always given to those that ask for it. You just have to know where to look." Her smile was comforting in the way that her eyes crinkled at the edges. The lines told the story of a lifetime of smiles and happiness.  

"Wish me luck," Korra said before she bid the healer goodbye and returned to the children in the house. She saw Oogi in the yard - Tenzin must be home early. 

She paused in the doorway when she heard the laughter and watched as the normally stoic Tenzin was tickling Meelo and Jinora while Ikki clung to his back like a lemur. Rohan sat propped up in front of the sofa giggling at the four playing on the rug. She thought back to when Pema was around and she had never seen Tenzin this energetic. Since her passing, he had taken more time to be with the kids like this. He was trying to compensate for their loss and he loosened up a lot because he wasn't at work as often.  

Ikki spotted Korra and yelled, "Korra's back!" before she successfully launched herself at Korra's body. Korra became involved in the tickle war on Tenzin's side but the air bending master was a turncoat and she ended up on the floor squealing as she was tickled by all the air benders in the house besides Rohan. 

"I give! I give! I surrender!" They all laughed and Tenzin sent the kids outside to play. When Korra remained on the floor, trying to catch her breath, Tenzin laid down beside her to calm down as well. Rohan was happy to babble and just sit against the couch by their heads.  

She sighed. This was it - her chance to tell him. "I never knew I could love kids until I met yours," she tried. 

"They're a handful, that's for sure," he laughed. "I'm glad that they're so much like her, even though they're benders. I see Pema in all of them, especially Ikki. I wish she was still here every day to see them." He turned to look at Korra. "My children love you too, you know. You're family." 

She let a silence hang between them while she thought of what she would say next. "Would you have liked to have more kids?" she asked as she thought it was neutral enough to gauge his reaction to the subject.  

"No, not at all. Pema and I actually thought of only having the three when Rohan showed up. He is a blessing, and I am glad to have him but I never wanted a house full of kids. As a child I despised the other children. I was picked on a lot and it sort of turned me off of the thought until Pema convinced me after we were married to have kids. I don't think I could handle another one." 

Korra's heart broke at the words though she fought to keep her tears in check. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. She couldn't tell him now. Not ever. 

 

\--- 

 

Within a week, she realized she couldn't stay. Before long it would become noticeable and obvious that she was with child and Tenzin made it clear that he didn't want any more. Maybe she wasn't being fair to him, not telling him of her condition, but she thought about how thin he was already stretched coming up on the two-year anniversary of Pema's death. The last thing he needed was another mouth to feed, nor did he need the disgrace upon his house of having a child out of wedlock. With a girl that was only a little older than his oldest child, no less.  

The more she thought on it, she couldn't go home to the Southern Water Tribe either. If this child was born an air bender like all of Tenzin's other children, everyone, especially Katara, would know it was Tenzin's child. The shame of having a child out of wedlock would be worse there as well, under the eyes of her parents and his mother. Going to her previous home was out of the question. 

The other problem she faced was how would she tell Tenzin and the kids that she was leaving? She could say she was going back south but where would she go? She had to formulate a plan and quickly. 

 

\--- 

 

"Tenzin, could I talk to you?" Korra was in some air acolyte robes as they were looser than her water tribe clothes and she could feel the little bump beginning to form on her abdomen. It wasn't yet visible but it made her feel better to wear the looser garments. 

"Sure. What's on your mind?" he asked as she walked closer to him. He was in his room and about to start getting ready for bed when she knocked on the door frame. She stopped at the end of his bed and looked down to her hands before meeting his gaze again. 

"I just… I wanted to tell you that I planned on going back to the Water Tribe." 

Surprise colored his features. He hadn't seen this coming, apparently. "Oh. When were you planning on going?" 

"At the end of this week," she replied neutrally.  

"That's fine. I'll talk to some of the acolyte women and see if they can watch the kids while I'm at work for a couple weeks and-" 

She didn't want to look at him, but she had to. "Tenzin," she cut him off, "it's time for me to return." She paused when it still didn't click. "Permanently." 

The expression turned from a look of dismay to confusion, "I thought you liked it here. You really don't have to leave, Korra." 

"I do, though. You don't need me here anymore, Tenzin. You're closer to your children now than you ever were. My family misses me too." She hated to bring her family into this.  

Tenzin looked down before looking back at Korra. "And there's nothing I can do to change your mind?" A tear dropped past Korra's defenses and fell down her cheek. She shook her head as she didn't trust her voice. 

He opened his arms to her and she embraced him. "I will always love you. All five of you," she whispered against his neck. "I'm sorry," she breathed too quietly for him to hear.  

 

\--- 

 

After returning to the Southern Water Tribe for two weeks, she announced that she was going to travel for a bit and left again shortly after. By that time she had her plan: she would leave Naga with her parents in the South Pole and take a flying bison to one of the Air Temples and live among the other air acolytes. The acolytes never leave the temples and the temples rarely get visitors. It was perfect. She could raise her son or daughter in peace and should her child be an air bender, the rest of the world would never know. Her tribe would never know. Her parents would never know and Katara would surely never know.  

Tenzin would never know.  

 

\--- 

 

Jinora watched her father. He was more withdrawn ever since Korra had left. Her youngest brother, Rohan, was also giving everyone a hard time with Korra gone. No one could hum her lullabies quite like she did and he didn't like it one bit. He screamed the taboo word at their father sometimes and he always looked like he was upset after Rohan finally stopped. This was making their home very tense and quiet, like Korra had died just like their mom had but no one was there to keep them together this time. 

It had been three months since Korra had left and that's when Jinora got the best idea ever.  

"Dad, you need to book off a couple weeks from work." Tenzin gave her a quirked eyebrow and asked why. "We need to take a vacation and go see Korra. We all miss her and you know it. Plus, we can see Gran-Gran while we're there!" She smiled and her father seemed to think it over. 

"You know, Jinora, I think you're right." 

And that's how everything began to go downhill.  

 

\--- 

 

When Tenzin, Jinora, Ikki, Meelo and Rohan arrived in the South Pole, they were greeted by everyone except the one person they all wanted to see. Katara embraced Tenzin and so did his sister Kya.  

"Mom, I don't want to sound too forward, but where is Korra. The children bugged me to come because they miss her." 

Katara's eyebrows almost reached her hairline. "You don't know?" 

"What don't I know?" he demanded.  

"We all thought she was keeping in touch with you on her travels. Haven't you been receiving letters from her?" 

Tenzin was getting anxious. Where did she go? "Not one. The kids have written her a few letters and none have been sent back." He omitted that he had sent one too every time his children wanted to send a letter to her. 

"Oh dear. It appears that she either got lost or doesn't want to be found," Katara seemed genuinely concerned.  

"Don't say anything to the kids, Mom-" 

"Mum mum mum. Dada, Mum.  Mumma!" Rohan took this moment to yell from his sling on Tenzin's chest.  

Katara looked taken aback for a moment and Tenzin just shook his head. "Let me take him, Tenzin." 

"No, he's inconsolable when he's like this. Someone taught him to call Korra 'Mum.' I don't know who did but he's been throwing fits the last couple months. Nothing works." 

"Tenzin, I raised three of my own children and have tamed many more. Give him to me. He needs a mother's touch." He relinquished the two-year-old to his mother and cringed when he started bawling. Jinora rushed over and tried to hush him in her Gran-Gran's arms but to no avail. Katara was at a loss. He just kept screaming and crying and shrieked louder when she started humming Korra's lullaby to him. 

Tenzin took him back and he stopped shrieking but still cried. Tenzin shrugged. "None of the other ones were like this." 

"Gran-Gran?" Katara looked down to see all three grand kids staring at her and Ikki speaking. "Where's Korra?" 

Katara looked up at Tenzin as she lied, "You guys just missed her by a day or two. She left to go on a trip and didn't say when she would be back. Don't worry though; you all will still have fun while you're here." 

The girls tried not to look saddened but Meelo stuck out his bottom lip, "Awww! That's no fun! Who are we going to air scooter race? Or have a tickle war with?" 

A bark was heard and everyone turned.  

"NAGA!" 

The children laughed and ran to hug the polar bear dog. She rolled on her side and kicked her leg when the kids rubbed her belly.  

Tenzin sighed at the sight as Rohan still whimpered in the sling. At least Naga was here. At the same time, he wondered why Korra didn't take Naga with her. Why would she not want Naga to come? 

 

\--- 

 

Now she understood why they called it 'labor.' Korra couldn't believe that Pena had done this four times. Why would any sane woman do this?  

"Push! Just one more big push. Breathe deeply," the air acolyte nurse told her as calmly as possible. "Just a bit more. Keep breathing, Korra." 

Finally the baby was out. She hurt all over but her eyes were locked on the nurse that cut the umbilical cord and cleaned her child. Finally, her baby, wrapped in a yellow blanket was deposited on her breast. "It's a girl. She is strong; a bender for sure. What will you name her?" 

"Tanzi. My beautiful Tanzi." 

 

\--- 

 

Why didn't she bring Naga? 

This question still burned in the back of Tenzin's mind. The children had begged and pleaded with Tonraq, Korra's father, and then Tenzin to bring Naga home with them and that was how they ended up taking a boat back to their home in Republic City. He couldn't refuse them when he himself wanted this piece of Korra too.  

A year after that trip, he had kept in close touch with his mother and a year's time had not seen Korra's return, nor the following year either. Two years had gone by since she had left. Four years since Pema had passed. But, worse still, it had been three years since he fell in love with Korra. Yes, he was almost old enough to be her father and yes, he probably should not have slept with her that one night two or so years ago. Maybe, if he had spoken up, she would've stayed? 

His children didn't seem to forgive him for letting her leave. Now it was eating him alive - where was she and was she okay? 

He sighed as he got up from another sleepless night. He retreated to his desk and looked up at the wall. Pictures of him and Pema with their three children. They had never gotten a chance to take a photo after Rohan was born. He did, however, have a photo that was tilted a bit of Rohan nestled into Korra's neck and Meelo was sitting on her knee as she told a story. Ikki had found a camera and took the photo. It was perfect, he thought. His gaze fell to the map tacked to the back of his tall desk, right below his organized paper cubby holes. He couldn't believe that she could disappear into thin air like that. 

It clicked.  

She didn't take Naga because she couldn't. The only way to an air temple was by flying. It made perfect sense. 

He would take Oogi and fly to all the temples. He would find her and… and what? He wasn't quite sure what but he had to try. He needed Korra like he needed air. 

He looked back up to the picture of Pema and smiled. "I love her, Pema. I need to bring her home." 

 

\--- 

 

"Why are we going to see Gran-Gran again?" Jinora asked for the umpteenth time. 

"I need to take a trip, Jinora." 

"Why can't we go with you, Daddy?" his fourteen-year-old daughter persisted.  

"It will be too long for all four of you, so you are all going to stay with your grandmother for a little while. Uncle Bumi here," he motioned to his annoying older brother, which he had called only because he didn't want to waste more time flying to the Southern Water Tribe before flying back north to get to the Western Air Temple, "is going with you four. You'll get to hear all his crazy stories on the way there and I'll see you all in a few weeks. Okay?" Tenzin hugged his daughter close. "I love you so much, Jinora. Be good for your uncle and grandmother. And please, keep Meelo out of trouble." Jinora grinned at that and finally ran after her siblings onto the boat. 

Bumi came up and patted Tenzin on the back. "Where are you going to start?" 

"Western Air Temple. I'm sure she's got to be at one of them. It's the only thing that makes sense to me." Tenzin sighed. "You better get going. The boat will be leaving shortly. Thank you again, for watching my children." 

"Don't mention it, brother. Get going now. Find her." 

Tenzin didn't need to be told twice as he jumped onto Oogi's head and took up his reigns. "Oogi, yip yip." 

 

\--- 

 

Tanzi grew and grew. She was approaching her terrible twos and was clearly an air bender. Tenzin really did have powerful genetics, apparently. She might pout like a pro but Tanzi's smile went unrivaled. It was almost the summer time and almost her little Tanzi's birthday. Another year that Korra had deprived her of her father and another year that the Southern Air Temple acolytes kept her and Tanzi sheltered from the rest of the year. 

On this morning, Abbot Shung was racing around without a word to anyone. He seemed on edge yet excited. The summer solstice was nearing and that usually made him squirrelly but this was different. She shook her head and went to tend to some laundry before Tanzi woke up.  

"Mumma!" Too late, she thought. 

Tanzi reminded her of Rohan's first two years. She missed Tenzin's children every day but she especially felt connected to Rohan. He was like her own child as he was just a few months old when Pema died and she took over. Jinora had confessed to her after the incident that she had overheard Meelo teaching Rohan about their own Mom and that was how he had learned to say the word. She also told Korra that she was happy that Korra was a like mom to Rohan.  

It was nearing noon when she noticed that she had stopped hearing Tanzi's nonsense humming in the past couple minutes. She couldn't have gone far; Korra figured as she put down her mending and looked around her sparse living quarters. No Tanzi. She searched along the women's housing. No Tanzi.  

She went out into the courtyard to see a bison that looked familiar as they all sort of did and then she spotted Abbot Shung picking up Tanzi. It wasn't cause for concern as the old man loved children and she seemed to gravitate towards him. Korra sighed and approached the head of the Southern Air Temple. 

"Greetings," she spoke to him once he noticed her coming closer. 

"Ah, looks like Momma found you, Tanzi," he tickled the little air bender's belly and she made a few feeble air currents when she swing her arms to ward off tickles. 

Tanzi was handed off to Korra when she noticed the tall figure that had just jumped down from the saddle of the air bison. The last person she expected to see was there. 

"Korra!" He looked shocked beyond belief for a moment before he strode forward and embraced her, mindful of the toddler in her grasp. He pulled back and looked into her eyes. "You have no idea how much I've missed you." 

He looked like he was going to go on when he looked between Korra and Tanzi. "Your daughter?" 

Korra nodded. "I didn't realize that you had met someone," he seemed to backpedal a bit when Korra put her hand on his arm. 

"No, I didn't. Well, I did, but I was never really with him. Tanzi has never met her father." Tanzi squirmed so Korra let her down to play with the flying bison.  

Tenzin seemed to think this over as Tanzi toddled over to Oogi's face and tapped his chocolate brown nose three times. He blew air at her through his nose in response. Korra realized where this was going but before she could stop her, Tanzi blew a large air current back at Oogi. Oogi groaned and nuzzled the young air bender's entire body.  

Korra finally looked back at Tenzin's face. "She is an air bender. I'm sorry Tenzin." She felt so small and could feel his gaze after she looked away. 

Tenzin gripped her shoulders and demanded gently, "Look at me, Korra." 

Tears escaped her eyes no matter how much she didn't want them to. "Look at me." He lifted her chin up to meet his eyes. "Is she mine?" 

Korra's voice didn't work. It was like her throat had seized up and couldn't utter a sound. She nodded instead and Tenzin's face lit up. He embraced her and lifted her up before swinging her in a circle. "Korra, this is excellent news! You've just made me the happiest man on earth." He set her down and let Korra catch her breath.  

"You're not angry?" 

"Of course not! I have been waiting three years to tell you something. I never found the right time before and then you disappeared for two years. Korra of the Southern Water Tribe, you are my savior. I owe my life and the lives of my children to you. You held me together when all I wanted to do was fall apart. You complete my life and are a second, even first mother to my children. I wish to make an honest woman of you, if you'll have me. If not, just please come home. Naga and the children miss you. The island isn't home without you there." 

She was so taken aback by his proposal that she grasped onto the last thing she could remember him saying. "Wait, you have Naga? How? I left her with my parents?" 

"We came to bring you home from your tribe three months after you left but you were already gone. The kids begged your father to let us take her home and he did so we took a boat all the way back to Republic City with her. She was actually the key to where you were. You would take her with you everywhere if you could so I had to figure out where she couldn't go." 

Korra looked back at Tanzi who was giving Oogi kisses on his nose and Oogi made groans of appreciation before licking her with his big tongue. "I didn't stay because you said you didn't want any more children. I thought you might resent me for bringing her into this world when you were already overburdened. That's why I left. If you had said yes that day, I don't think I would have left." It hurt her to admit it but she had to be honest with Tenzin.  

"That was wrong of me. I would've and still will love any and all children you wish to grace me with. I could only be so lucky to father such miracles. I say this in all honesty. Whether we have only five children or fifty, I will love and appreciate them all." Tenzin's eyes shone with pure love. He was an honest man that loved her, just Korra. He had an understanding and appreciation for her status as the Avatar but he never looked at her as Korra: the Avatar. This man before her was all she needed.  

Korra lifted her arms around his neck and embraced him like she would never let go. "Yes. Yes, I love you Tenzin. Yes, I want to live by your side. Yes, I want to see our children again. Yes. I will marry you." And with that, they kissed their first true kiss.  

 

 

FIN


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